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Efforts by PC leader Tim Hudak to eliminate Local Health Integration Networks, has the ear of Jeff Wesley of Wallaceburg.

Wesley, a Chatham-Kent councillor and past chair of SOS (Save Our Sydenham Committee) told The Chatham Daily News Tuesday he supports Hudak's plan if it reduces bureaucracy and puts more dollars in local health care.

Wesley stopped short of commenting on Hudak's other demand to do away with Community Health Care Centres.

"I cannot comment on CCACs as I am not familiar enough with them,'' he said.

Hudak issued a media release Tuesday saying Ontario can again have confidence in a world-class health care system, but only if its built on existing strengths, while closing down costly bureaucracies and using the money to directly serve patient needs.

"I have always thought that there is enough money in the health care system, but that it is not spent properly and there is too much waste and bureaucracy,'' said Wesley.

He said financial disasters such as e-health and ORNGE wasted million that could have gone into front line health care.

"The LHINs say they are local decision-making bodies but they really are not,'' he said.

Wesley said there is basically no representation from the Sydenham District Hospital catchment area.

Hudak said there is a need to remember that the health care system is for providing care - not for creating or sustaining well-paid managerial jobs for its own sake.

The PC leader said all 14 LHINs have failed to attain most provincially set targets.

"The numbers are dismal, adding up to a 77% failure rate across the entire network,'' he said.